HP71 47: Managing People and Organisation - Joy of Case Study - Management Assignment Help

Assignment Task:

Case study 
Joy of Chocolate  
J.O.C. (Joy of Chocolate) was created in 1999 by Suzy Campbell and is based in Stirling. She funded her new business with her redundancy package from Safeway Stores where she had been General Manager. Suzy’s motivation was to fulfil her ambition of having her own business and achieve her dream of creating gourmet chocolates. In the five years prior to her redundancy, Suzy had spent her holidays achieving professional qualifications in chocolate making and before starting the business she had spent six months gaining valuable work experience with various chocolate firms in Europe. In the early days Suzy considered survival a major achievement but as time passed her ambitions for the business grew.  
Suzy’s career in retailing had given her valuable managerial experience. She was skilled in forward planning and had sales expertise developed through the years working with food suppliers. Suzy believed that existing chocolate suppliers focused on importing a finished product rather than developing their own goods.   
Suzy quickly realised that there was a niche in the market supplying a wider range of gourmet chocolates to business customers. To penetrate this market Suzy had firstly, targeted luxury restaurants and hotels with gourmet chocolates for their guests and secondly she approached organisations offering to supply them with corporate gifts.   
Suzy knew that the way forward was close attention to detail and offering a unique product to potential customers. She intended to complement this by offering products with local connections. This would help the business to operate effectively and efficiently. Her aim was to create the gourmet chocolates that would be enhanced with local produce such as heather honey, whisky and locally grown fruit. She wanted the business to become known for excellence and innovative products.  
With assistance from the bank, Suzy invested in the latest equipment for the business’s specialist chocolate making factory. J.O.C. gained a reputation for excellence and Suzy developed good relationships with several exclusive restaurants and hotels. She ensured that customers received orders on time and developed a reputation for dependability. J.O.C. also worked closely with some restaurants to create specialist chocolates for their specific requirements. This meant that J.O.C. had achieved the dual objectives of securing sales and developing new products were being met.  
Suzy fostered good relationships with her main suppliers of chocolate and cocoa from the Dominican Republic and Ivory Coast. There were two main farmers supplying the raw material allowing J.O.C. to have alternative sources to enhance the taste. Suzy decided to limit the number of suppliers so that she could develop a very close relationship as she did not want to run the business with price as the key factor. Suzy believed in ethical responsibility and supported the Ethical Trading Initiative. The aim was to create self-help in the communities supplying the cocoa and this fitted in with her aim of creating a positive culture in all aspects of the business. Back at the factory, all staff were supported in developing their skills, and training for the production staff ensured a high level of expertise throughout the business.

Growth of the business  (HP7147)
Two key appointments from the outset were Leon Houmond and Hafiz Shah. Leon was appointed as Head of Chocolate Development, Concept Chocolatier; and Hafiz as Chocolate Production, Factory Manager. Leon had previously trained in Switzerland, working alongside Suzy when she was undertaking her qualifications. She knew Leon was a diligent, creative individual and would prove to be an important part of the team. Suzy and Leon met every Monday afternoon to discuss potential developments. This allowed Suzy to be involved in creating chocolates but also time away from the business to visit customers ensuring that their individual needs were being met and to meet with suppliers to discuss future needs for production.  

Questions

1. Explain the main roles and activities of a manager. Identify the relevant roles and the activities utilised by a manager in the case study.
2. Identify two ways that organisations can measure managerial performance. State how each measure can be utilised to assess managerial performance.
3. Identify and explain an appropriate behavioural theory of leadership and highlight its application in the case study.
4. Identify and explain a contingency or transformational theory of leadership and highlight its application in the case study.
5. For the organisation in the case study, explain how theories of leadership can be used to improve the way in which a manager leads the staff.

This HP7147: Management Assignment has been solved by our Management Experts at My Uni Paper. Our Assignment Writing Experts are efficient to provide a fresh solution to this question. We are serving more than 10000+ Students in Australia, UK & US by helping them to score HD in their academics. Our experts are well trained to follow all marking rubrics & referencing style.

Be it a used or new solution, the quality of the work submitted by our assignment experts remains unhampered. You may continue to expect the same or even better quality with the used and new assignment solution files respectively. There’s one thing to be noticed that you could choose one between the two and acquire an HD either way. You could choose a new assignment solution file to get yourself an exclusive, plagiarism (with free Turnitin file), expert quality assignment or order an old solution file that was considered worthy of the highest distinction.